Recently, I made the announcement that I am financially independent from medicine. As a quick recap, I’ll just say that I no longer have to rely on my physician’s salary as my primary source of income thanks to my other ventures, and yes, passive sources of income. Since then, the number one question I’ve received is this: “So, when are you going to retire?”

Retirement as a Way of Life

Well, the fact is that my answer hasn’t changed from the original post. I may never fully retire Rather, I’m retiring gradually. But what does it mean to “gradually” retire?

Well, it simply means that as my income from other sources has increased, I’ve been able to reduce time spent in “doctor mode.” For example, if I’m able to make an extra $3,000 cash flow from my real estate investments, that’s about $3,000 worth of time I can spend away from the hospital pursuing other ventures or more importantly, spending time with my family. Ideally, I also want that to mean fewer nights and weekends in the hospitals.

Your Specialty Makes a Difference

I understand that I’m fortunate that my particular specialty (anesthesiology) allows for that kind of flexibility. Other fields, such as emergency medicine, also allow a certain level of interchangeability–as long as someone is willing to work that shift or case, then you’re free to go.

Those in other specialties, like surgeons, don’t necessarily enjoy that degree of flexibility (it’s not like you can simply give up your cases). If your profession falls into this latter category, for you, gradual retirement may mean being able to take fewer patients and fewer cases. For example, if you’re an OB/GYN, instead of taking twenty delivering patients a month, you may decide to only take ten or fifteen. See where I’m going with this? Gradual retirement looks different for everyone.

But even though I’m retiring gradually, I still want to keep my day job.

Love the Job, But Strive for Balance

At this point, I have a few choices ahead of me. Now that I could technically quit medicine altogether and still pay the bills, I can choose how much time I want to spend actually working as a physician. I think my ideal balance is somewhere around 60% of full-time.

I feel that’s enough time to keep my skills sharp, while also giving me enough variety in my week. The simple fact is that I enjoy my work, and I don’t want to leave it entirely. There’s a lot to like about it–I get to use my hands, challenge my mind, and I enjoy an immense satisfaction when I do the job well. Helping people is something I take pride in, and it’s very fulfilling.

Of course, if I’m being honest, I also don’t want to feel like I wasted all those years of studying and training. Medical school and residency weren’t easy. This part of my life is the payoff for that, and I want to continue to use my degree and add to my experience.

So no, I don’t plan on fully retiring. I’m slowly titrating my hours down, particularly night and weekend hours, until I find the right balance.

For me, that balance means feeling that sense of fulfillment, mission, and helping people, while still having time to pursue some other ventures and–most importantly–not having to miss important moments in my family life.

What’s your ideal balance in terms of hours, time spent in your current profession? If you’ve achieved it, I would love to hear about it.

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13 comments

In order to make a better wage, I’ve always chosen very challenging jobs in Psychiatry. Medical Director, department chair, extra call, weekends, and moonlighting on inpatient units since the big recession. As you say, it’s different for each specialty, but more volume, more acuity, more call, more responsibility, and more weekends….pays more. Weekends, holidays and call leverage my time.

But I’m tired of high acuity, call, weekends, and my big expensive life. So, I’m downsizing and moving to a cabin with my family. My expenses drop by $100,000 and so do my taxes, if I make $150,000/yr.

Making $150,000 a year is much easier. I can do it working two days a week. If I decide to keep taking a bit of night call, I only have to make the other $110,000. That’s two eight hour days…how about Tuesday and Wednesday…and having a permanent Thursday to Monday off? Sounds good to me.

I will read your site and learn more about passive income. Thanks and good luck to you!

Well said.
I’m FI, but not ready to give up my medical career. There are a lot of tangible and intangible benefits. I like meeting new people, working as part of an effective team, helping patients, pushing myself to learn, teaching new clinicians, the health insurance, other benefits, purpose, identity, the structure in my week and oh yes, the paycheck isn’t bad.
On the other hand, I was grinding away so much that I felt absent from my own life. I went down to part-time as a clinician by dropping all of my administrative roles. It has been awesome. The financial loss was trivial (and unimportant since I’m post-FI). My stress level dropped a lot. I now have more time to be supportive at home, be involved in my kids’ lives, reconnect with friends, reading, sleeping, hobbies etc.
If there is someone out there contemplating part-time clinical work, I highly recommend it!

Ramping down my surgery practice over a three year period worked out very well for me. I’m not sure I would have done well if I went from full practice to retired all at once. By the time I stopped, I was only working one week a month and it was much easier to let it go. The story of how I did it is in my third book, The Doctors Guide to Smart Career Alternatives and Retirement. I was not sure how I would do without medicine, it turned out I didn’t miss it. It helps that I took on a new mission as an author and coach. It fills my time well and makes me still feel productive.

Cory-I read your 6 lessons and found that many of them, if not most, were spot on.
I retired after 28-29 years from surgery last August. Similarly I had backed down my clinical time and was doing administrative and medical directorship work as well. I agree whole heartedly that by backing down from my time in the OR and with patients it was easier than had I attempted cold turkey.

Spine surgeon here. I take Friday afternoons off. I can pick up the kids from school and now ice cream at Baskin Robbins is a ritual to look forward to. Sure it leaves some RVU’s on the table but they wont be kids forever.

I (try and) do the same. I’m a hand surgeon who also takes general ortho call so my slow, casual Fridays often end up being not so slow by the time I add all the urgent trauma cases to my schedule. But of course the days I keep the schedule light in preparation of trauma cases, I don’t end up with any. But I still usually finish by 2 or 3 pm.

I love this perspective and it’s exactly what I’m pursuing now. I’ve throttled back to 20 hours a week at my W2 job and to be honest it’s reframed my entire attitude about my work. It gives new meaning to the phrase “everything in moderation”.

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